Life and Love and Why
by Sonata IX
Summary: Three years later, Sarah finally understands what Jareth was trying to tell her. But is it too late for her to save his sanity? (Jareth&Sarah, one-shot)


Author's Note: This is meant to be a one-shot fic, but it's certainly got room to be continued if I ever feel like it. The title is from a song by Switchfoot.  
  
  
Sarah.  
  
She swept through the great maze like a wraith, silent, grave, and full of emotion beyond words. She had been there for hours, alone, and she moved swiftly, though time had stopped mattering when she said the words.  
  
_I wish the goblins would come and take me away right now!_  
  
-begin flashback-  
(a few hours earlier)  
  
Sarah sat, staring into the mirror, and brushed her long dark hair. It was the exact same length it had been three years ago. She had made sure of it. In fact, much of her appearance was the same, down to the clothes she wore. Her face had aged slightly, but it couldn't be helped. Maybe it was good to show some small sign of how she had changed in the years since visiting the Labyrinth.  
  
She closed her eyes, the echo of an old song floating through her mind.  
  
_As the world falls down..._  
  
Like a half-remembered dream, the melody refused to be captured. Visions of elegant dancing and tainted dancers tickled the edge of her thoughts. She could never recall much of that drugged hallucination. She could never quite remember...  
  
Shaking her head in frustration, Sarah set the brush down on her dresser with a frustrated clack. Dwelling on it would get her nowhere. Soon she would have her answers. Or so she hoped.  
  
Taking a deep calming breath, she stood and studied her appearance in the mirror one final time, making sure everything was perfect. She looked beautiful, ethereal, as with the pale moonlight filtering into her room and battled against the dim light from the lamp in the corner. She only hoped _he_ would think so. The Goblin King. Jareth.  
  
At the thought of him, she almost lost her nerve. But no, the time for preparation was past. Now was the time to act. She inhaled again, looking out the window at the night.  
  
"I wish the goblins would come and take me away right now!"  
  
An eerie silence followed her words, as if the air itself was in shock.   
  
Sarah jumped as the bulb from the lamp explode, raining glittering shards in the corner. The room was filled with darkness and starlight, and the sound of her own nervous breathing. She strained to hear any unusual noises, but her heart was pounding, drowning out all other sound.  
  
There was movement in the shadows. Something touched her foot and she jerked her leg, kicking at it. Then she saw the eyes, glittering at her from all around. Hissing giggles mocked her efforts to fend them off and they swarmed over her in a clinging, pawing, chittering mass. Sarah screamed as she felt the tiny bodies latching onto every part of her.  
  
"Get off me!" she shrieked, and they vanished. As if by magic. Quaking, she fell to her knees and landed on soft dirt and thin grass. Her hands met warm dry soil as they broke her fall and she raised her head, peering through the veil of dark disheveled hair. Yes, she was back. On that same hill overlooking the Labyrinth. Back Underground.  
  
At last.  
  
-end flashback-  
  
_Get through the Labyrinth, get through the Labyrinth! One thing's for sure: she'll never get through the Labyrinth!_  
  
And yet, she had. Not without help, and not without danger, but she _had_ made it.  
  
This was different though. Since arriving, she had not seen another living creature. Not even the eyeball lichen. Hours had passed in silence as she traveled. It felt as if the maze itself was waiting for something, as if it was holding its breath in eager anticipation. Was the Labyrinth a reflection of its ruler? Or was she reading too much into a simple game?  
  
Soon. Soon she would be through it. True, she had no help, but nothing had hindered her progress either. No tricks. No traps. No irritating goblin king showing up at the most inopportune moments. She almost wished he would. It had caught her by surprise when he had not appeared in her room. It would have made things so much simpler to have confronted him then and there, but he was apparently determined to make her play his games once more.  
  
It was fine. She could wait a little longer. She would meet him soon enough.  
  
-begin second flashback-  
(approximately one year ago)  
  
Sarah sat in the park, thumbing through her dog-eared copy of Labyrinth. Had it really been two years? Only two years. It felt like forever.  
  
_Not long at all..._  
  
He haunted her. His voice, his face, his words...they tormented her endlessly, even chasing her through her dreams. What were they trying to tell her? She had learned so much from her trip through the Labyrinth, but it still felt as if she had missed something vitally important. Something about the Goblin King.  
  
_Nothing is what it seems in this place._  
  
She had painted him as the stereotypical villain, no good within him. And yet...what was it he had said?  
  
_I have reordered time, I have turned the world upside down, and I have done it all for you! I'm exhausted from living up to your expectations._  
  
It made no sense to her. Why did he do it? Why drive himself to such a state for a single child? Or...had it really been about Toby at all? For Jareth, perhaps not.  
  
She thought of other things. The amused smile that tugged at the corners of his mouth when her stubbornness matched his. The pain on his face when he realized she would not be swayed from her single-minded goal of saving her brother. The way he stood so very, very close but never touched her. Sarah shivered in remembrance.  
  
It was not until much later that she had even had time to think about Jareth's words. By taking Toby, he had perhaps inadvertently made her task very simple. She had no right to sacrifice the child for her own pleasure, and the Goblin King's offers of dreams come true fell on deaf ears. Looking back, she had to wonder. Had he offered because he had taken Toby, or had he taken Toby so that he could offer?  
  
The book lay open on her lap and she finally read the words.  
  
_But what no one knew was that the King of the Goblins had fallen in love with the girl..._  
  
Again, she was reminded of the strange dream she'd had while in the Underground. She remembered dancing with carefree delight.  
  
_As the world falls down..._  
  
The Goblin King held her close and gazed into her eyes with emotion so intense that it shook her to the core.  
  
_Falling...falling in love._  
  
A clock chimed, and she ran from him. She ran from what his eyes told her and she ran from herself, from the way she'd almost given in. She ran in fear of being so important to someone. And she had defeated him that day, and never looked back.  
  
But she could not forget that look in his eyes.  
  
-end second flashback-  
  
Tears stung Sarah's eyes as they had that day in the park, when she had sat with her head bowed, finally realizing that the Goblin King really _had_ been in love with the girl. Her. What harm had she done to reject him as she had? Had he seen that she had no choice, even if she had truly understood his offer?  
  
She swiped at her eyes angrily. Now was not the time for tears. She stood outside the gates of the Goblin City. Almost there.   
  
She pushed open the door resolutely and entered the silent village.  
  
-break-  
  
Jareth.  
  
He stood stiffly in front of his throne, a dark, brooding statue. She had come back. How long had it been? She had come back to him.  
  
Not back to him. He stared blankly across the silent, empty room at the archway she would come through. She was so close.  
  
When he'd heard her voice calling to him through the slightly-ordered chaos that was his usual day, it felt like someone had stabbed an icicle through his chest. He had thought he would never hear her voice again. Had told himself he never wanted to. But now she called, for some inexplicable reason, and he was bound to take her.  
  
He sent the goblins. He could not face her himself, not yet. It was too soon, too unexpected. He could not let her see what she had done to him, how she had ripped him apart and shredded his heart to pieces with a few simple words.  
  
_You have no power over me._  
  
How dare she. He felt cold, so cold, and he knew he should have felt outraged. Instead, standing there in the empty stone room, waiting for the girl, no, woman, who had broken his heart to walk through the door, he felt only tired. So very, very tired of wanting something that would never be his.  
  
Then Sarah was there, stepping calmly into his throne room. His eyes drank in her form hungrily. She looked the same, her hair, her face, even her clothes. Older, perhaps, but still so beautiful. Her gaze locked with his and held it, and at the fire that blazed from the depths of her eyes, he almost stepped back from her uncertainly.  
  
She didn't even pause in her stride, as if she had expected to find him here, alone, and had already planned her next move. Maybe she had, for all he knew. She marched across the bare room to where he stood frozen and, still without hesitation, tangled a hand in his hair and pulled his head down, locking her lips onto his.  
  
Jareth was stunned. Sarah was practically clinging to him, eyes closed, mouth covering his. Without a word of explanation, and after she had rejected him three years ago. It was too much. He felt a moan of agony and yearning rise in his throat and he thrust Sarah away from him. She stumbled backwards, caught off guard by his move, and he stared at her with a pain-filled, haunted expression before escaping into the Escher room. Let her find him there, if she truly wanted to.  
  
-break-  
  
Sarah.  
  
When Jareth vanished from the throne room, she was not surprised. Her actions had been risky, but she had her answers. Only an unrequited love could cause such raw pain as she saw on his face. Now she knew.  
  
_Everything I've done I've done for you._  
  
She turned towards the stairway.   
  
_That's the only way he could have gone!_  
  
She had found Toby in this maze of stairs. She would find the Goblin King. It was time to set things straight.  
  
Initially she wandered aimlessly, until rounding a corner brought her face to face with him. They stared at each other for a moment and then he walked off a ledge. She hurried after him, and the chase began. For a while, the only sound was the clack of his boots on the stone floor and the patter of her feet as she tried to catch up with him. But the faster she ran, the faster he walked, until it escalated into a full race. Up and down the stairs, across the walls, around massive pillars...he rounded a corner and she zoomed after him, almost falling when she found him waiting for her on the other side.  
  
Jareth was crouched against the wall, back pressed against the smooth stones, looking almost panicked. Sarah felt mirth tug at her features; had he really been so frantic to 'escape' her that he had backed himself into a dead end? They stared at each other mutely as Sarah panted for breath, her face flushed from following him. She took a step forward and he pressed himself closer against the wall, raising a hand to stop her.  
  
"Sarah...don't..."  
  
But she was beyond listening, locked into the same stubborn determination that she'd found last time she faced Jareth. But this time it wasn't her brother she was seeking. It was the Goblin King himself.  
  
Before he could finish his plea, she had pinned him to the wall, molding her body against him as her lips crushed his again. His hands fell involuntarily around her waist, and then tightened as she wrapped herself around him. Somewhere, a clock was chiming thirteen...  
  
He broke away from her again, searching her eyes, confusion warring with hope as the cold shell he had locked himself in began to crumble. "Sarah.." he began again, and again she stopped him.  
  
"No more games, Jareth," she said softly, running her fingers through his silky hair. "This time I came for you, and I'm not leaving until I get what I want." A seductive smile teased him as she added coyly, "...if then."  
  
She kissed him again as the Escher room crumbled away like the facade he had hidden behind for the past three years. Finally he returned her caresses with the same passion that she gave them, deepening the kiss and eliciting a small moan of delight from her mouth.  
  
They broke apart and he cupped her chin with his hand. "Sarah, I.."  
  
"I love you," she breathed, not caring that she had cut him off for a third time. She put all that she felt in her heart into those words, let it show on her face, heard the sharp intake of his breath. She smiled and he started to laugh, loud, joyous, almost hysterical chuckles that echoed around her.   
  
Then he was sobbing, clinging weakly to her and burying his face against her neck. She sank to her knees, cradling him in her arms. To think she had been the cause of such pain, such madness. "I'm sorry, Jareth, I'm so sorry," she whispered to him, over and over, as she stroked his hair gently, trying to comfort him.  
  
_Live without the sunlight._  
  
I can fix this, she thought silently.  
  
_Love without your heartbeat._  
  
Please, please let me be able to fix this.  
  
_I... I.. can't live... within you..._  
  
She held him there, on the cold floor of the Escher Room, for a long, long time.  
  
"I'll never leave you again, Jareth. I promise."


End file.
